Silence or Performance?

GigaHertzAddict · Dec 12, 2003

What's most important to you? Noise pullution with the extra MHz, or a near silent PC? and Why?

Yuriman · Dec 12, 2003

I like a balance. If I can hear it while I sleep, so be it. I sleep with a fan anyway. I like good speed in games, but if it gets loud enough to hear over game music or sounds I get mad.

anvil82 · Dec 12, 2003

Definitely silence.

Most people only use the full load when gaming or something similar. The other times what's the point of the noise pollution when web surfing, listening to mp3s etc, when you don't even need the overclock anyway.

This is why I watercool, silence is golden.

clocker2 · Dec 12, 2003

Does it really have to be either/or?
I think it's possible to achieve a good balance whether using air or water as your cooling solution.
Air is more difficult and takes more fine tuning, but it can be done.

PhobMX · Dec 12, 2003

im proud to say that my computer has a good balance between silence, efficient cooling and speed... well, maybe if i could fit an exhaust 120mm fan and also a 120mm fan to a zalman heatpipe to my vid card... but i luv it anyway

Surreal · Dec 13, 2003

have your cake and eat it too.

varible fans all the way. but yes the high end fans that are running on 7volts still are very LOUD!! But i have done hours apon hours of researching for fans. nexfan.com is one on my favs. One system i have i use 2 sets of 4 80mm fans (push/pull). You know what....... Those EIGHT fans are quiter than a set of those high volume 120mm, EvEN when the 120s are turned down they are still louder. In any cooling system with noise level a priority fans are a critcal choice and deserve just as much research and attention as the pump, WB, and HC recieves. point

ss

Korndog · Dec 13, 2003

i got both

overclocked an extra 700mhz
and only running 2 panaflos 21dba and 120mm fan @5v on my radiator right now!
water cooling does wonders

Strida · Dec 13, 2003

I love panaflos. I have the 40 CFM ones for my case fans, and they are near silent even still (my computer is under my desk, so it blocks almost all the noise). I use a 92mm Tornado with a fan controller, and usually keep it ~ 7 volts. Overall my computer only makes a gentle whir, while having load temps fairly low.

Luie · Dec 13, 2003

I got both as well.

noise = near silent! no bs!:
7Vmod the rifle-beared fans (already 25dB rated before 7Vmod) (PSU and HS). [SLK-974U HS]
Took out the NB fan.
Foam cover base of case + some of the side.
2.5 bels rated idle noise HDD [8MB cache too].

oc:
1700+ to 2200+
Temp = 36C

If I need to choose only one, I'll choose "SILENCE"! Yes, I agree. Silence is golden.
I experienced with several noisy setups and several silence setup. I preferr silence.
Why? Because I already am running the games very smoothly. Don't really need any more boosts. And I listen to MP3s alot. less noice pollution = good.

Valk · Dec 13, 2003

Curstomizability mainly. Sometimes, i want the absolute raping power that 2600 mhz can offer, others, i want to sleep at night.. being able to control fan speeds is a wonderful thing, i just wish i could control my cpu speed and voltage within windows. there might be a utility for it for the nf7-s, but meh. my msi was nice with its fuzzy logic.

when i want silent mode, my pc shuts the hell up really good. run it at 200x10 at 1.6 volts. turn my smart fan 2 down to 3700 rpm, which is nearly inaudible in my new case and turn the voltage of my case fans back to 12 volts. if i really want it quiet, i switch fans on my cpu to the sunbeam 80 mm that came with my round cold cathode. it moves 32 cfm at well under 30 db. efficiant and silent.

the noise level is so low that i often cannot tell my pc is running at that level if not for my two cathodes. I still get 2000 mhz core, 200 mhz fsb at cas 2, radoen 9800 at 400 mhz and a fast silent hard disk. mood drives power in this case.

JKeefe · Dec 13, 2003

I agree that a good balance on air is possible; I'm running a 2.4C at 3 GHz with a Zalman 7000 cooler. Things are quiet, just a gentle whirring sound, and temps are under 50 at load. This is a 24/7 overclock and a 24/7 fan settings (although I do use a Sunbeam controller).

A lot of people seem to crank things up during the day and tame them at night. I really feel that, depsite the massive gaming power of my rig, it is a very powerful tool overall, and that is why I fold. My computer sits here without me far longer than it sits here with me. Also, I reboot about once a week unless I'm messing around with things, and I would hate to do it constantly to overclock/underclock for noise purposes.

Nightingale · Dec 13, 2003

I prefer performance myself. I like loud stuff and most of the time I have headphones on with music just loud enough to drowned the drone of the fans whirring(not to loud cause I still appreciate having the ability to hear things

). I would be the guy crazy enough to throw a FX5800 U and 5 or so tornados in my case if I wasn't going to water cooling. Only downside to that is my pc would fly away or the stuff on my desk would be all over the floor

As for sleeping with this noise I probably could but I turn my computer off anyhow just because I like to know whats going on with my hardware at all times and get nervous especially right now with a broken heatsink and my temperatures fluctuating.

squirtle632 · Dec 13, 2003

I perfer a quiet system myself. If you look at my sig you can see what I am running. I am using the alum 120mm fans and (1) 80mm fan. The 120's are intake and the 80 is exhaust. I modded my case........ http://www.munichkid.com/15962/16452.html. As you can see I have the 120 on the side blowing across the cpu and the video card. The front 120 is 7volt modded using the Zalman fan controller that came with the HSF. I have the Thermaltake 80 on top set thermal mode and it has NEVER come on yet. (Yes it does work

)
The hard drive rack has been removed and permanantly mounted to the computer to keep that incessant 40mm fan whine silent.
I can only estimate but I would think that my computer runs at about 45db max. I have no way to measure it but my trping on the keyboard drowns out the sound.
I was contemplating going to water cooling but with the pump and the radiator fans running, it would be about the same amount of noise.
I like it this quiet since I do watch movies in here since my daughter and wife control the main tv but I do have the better sound set up

NAD receiver, Mirage BP150 dual 8" subs, and bookshelf speakers so listening to movies or playing games.............. I ain't gonna hear the fans.
Peace

Como · Dec 13, 2003

quiet, if icant sleep i get cranky. in which case, i crank things. (craking speed w/o sufficent cooling is a bad thing)

DoorBasher · Dec 13, 2003

Performance all the way. Really, a loud computer isnt as annoying as one might think. It's like someone who lives next to railroad tracks, after a while, they don't notice when a train goes by. And for when I must hear my games above all else, I have two things that solve the problem completely. One: Headphones. Two: A volume control.

I have bad memories of quiet PCs... Those [insert obscenities of your choice here] compaqs that I had to maintain at school... The Dell my mom owns that would consistently freeze up due to overheating... The Dell she owned before that that fried it's motherboard it got so hot (A real feat with a P200). The quieter the PC, the less reliable the PC, according to my experience.

vincent_1985 · Dec 13, 2003

i don't mind loud noise as long as it compensates for as much power as i have in teh box it it's a miniscule overclock i rather have silence but if it's a whoel ghz sure why not.

IO can always turn the computer off when i sleep. only takes me 5 seconds to boot back up anyways.

Tawcan · Dec 13, 2003

I keep mine running 24/7 in my room. Used to have a relatively loud computer (well loudest fan was 31dB I think). Sometimes it was hard to fall asleep on those silent nights.

Recently I took off the side fan and plugged the exhaust fan to the "fan control" connector on the Antec PS. It's not near silent but it's good enough.

I would say a balanced system is much better.

9mmCensor · Dec 13, 2003

Its all about balance. A delta is unreasonable, but a underclocked and undervolted chip to run with a passive sink too is unreasonale.

Find the happy medium.

PhobMX · Dec 13, 2003

Surreal said:
have your cake and eat it too.

varible fans all the way. but yes the high end fans that are running on 7volts still are very LOUD!! But i have done hours apon hours of researching for fans. nexfan.com is one on my favs. One system i have i use 2 sets of 4 80mm fans (push/pull). You know what....... Those EIGHT fans are quiter than a set of those high volume 120mm, EvEN when the 120s are turned down they are still louder. In any cooling system with noise level a priority fans are a critcal choice and deserve just as much research and attention as the pump, WB, and HC recieves. point

ss

you are right bro, but if you turn a little up the voltage on my aluminium 120mm fan, i can get to a sweet spot at about 8.5v... and im sure it pushes more air than 2 silent 80mm fans (which i have for exhaust)

caRpetbomBer · Dec 13, 2003

Ever since i had a Delta black 60mm 7000rpm fan on my sk6 I have been trying to build quieter systems. Never again. That fan most likely gave me hearing damage. Also my old IBM hard drive wow how annoying. Which i swtiched to Seagate silence. I have some Maxtors in my system now they idle just as quiet but read kinda loud.

Silence or Performance?

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